Sunday, February 3, 2008

Matthew L. Erway - Repeat Sex Offender

A 44-year-old McKean County man who avoided prosecution in a child-pornography case there has been sentenced to eight years and one month in a federal prison after he was convicted in U.S. District Court in Erie.

Matthew L. Erway, last known to live in Turtlepoint, also must serve three years of supervised release.

Erway pleaded guilty in July to possessing child pornography, for having more than 1,000 pornographic photographs and 100 explicit videos of children. The government said the images and videos were found on CD-ROMs.

U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin sentenced Erway on Friday. The sentence far exceeded the recommended sentencing guidelines of two years and six months to three years. McLaughlin cited the number of images as a reason for the sentence.

"The sentence demonstrates how dangerous Erway is to the community," said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Trabold.

Erway had faced 15 counts of possession of child pornography in McKean County Court, according to court documents. A judge dismissed the case on Aug. 9, 2005, because Erway had been held in prison longer than the maximum of 180 days before his trial.

Officials in McKean County then contacted the FBI, which contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office in Erie. The case became a federal matter because the pornography had crossed state lines.

Erway, whose left leg is partially amputated, was on parole for the attempted sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl in New York state when he was charged in the current case, according to court records. Trabold said parole officers found a stack of CD-ROMs containing the images and videos on Nov. 18, 2003, in Erway's bedroom at his parents' house in Port Allegany.